O'er moorland and brae: The Prince and Poundbury

Who knew Prince Charles was a real estate mogul? Not I, said the fly. Until we went to Poundbury: a village that the Prince is building. Only to discover he has not stopped there: Poundbury is but the beginning.

On this trip we have, unwittingly, found ourselves in places where British noblemen, over the centuries, have set out to build entire villages for one reason or another. Poundbury, a little to the west of Dorchester, is another of these villages.

Charles, our modern day nobleman, has long been interested in architecture, at least in relation to what goes up, and where, in the United Kingdom. He has asserted his preference for classical construction over the "carbuncles" of modernism in many forums. My guess is he would not be happy with the jagged glass monoliths intruding wildly into the air space around the classical elegance of the old port buildings on the Liverpool waterfront, for instance. London, similarly.

Charles has had his say about some of the modern conceptualisations that have been proposed for that city: his outspokenness has even put the kibosh on some of them, it seems. In the thick of all this, and with a passion and commitment to match his beliefs, Prince Charles has put his money where his mouth is, and Poundbury has been going up on the Duchy of Cornwall land, stone by stone, since 1993. The buildings follow his ideas. And, one assumes, his ideals.

To start with, the buildings are traditional. Some critics say, 'old fashioned'. We think they are quite smart, if a little samey, tho' some of the external finishes are going to need a regular steam clean to rid them of stain seepage coming out of the construction material, making even the new stuff look quite grubby. So, I hope there is a good body corporate, with good intentions and a goodly injection of funds, as they are going to need to regularly maintain the finishes to keep them looking fresh and smart and clean.

Charles also has a notion that villages should be built in such a way that encourage people to walk more. As in the olden days. Before cars. So, shops are spread out all over the Poundbury community. There is no centralised shopping hub, so to speak. If you want bread you walk down to where the baker is at that end of town. If you want a bridal dress you might have to walk the other way. If, you want to follow that by a visit to your accountant, a different direction entirely. So, if fitness is your thing this is the ideal place to live: tho' research to date suggests that the residents use their cars more here than anywhere else in Dorset. Probably because they can. Charles has built plenty of accessible car parks in little garage enclaves behind sections of the community, and the streets are wide, and there are no prohibitive yellow parking lines anywhere. Mind you, there are no zebra crossings either, so little children on the move, with no direction as to where to cross, might very well get skittled at any random moment. A worry.

But, Poundbury is happening: there are cranes and construction clatter all over town. And it is big enough to be a town: not a small village at all. Its buildings tend to stand quite tall; set a bit too close to the street, in truth, without much space allowed, which gives it more of an urban feel, but, also, leaves one with a sense of claustrophobia. Everything is just that little too close, and the sky is but a sliver between the tall vertical rows. I worry, too, that above most of the larger buildings being constructed is a great deal of untenanted office space. It is difficult to imagine whoever will need to use it all, either. There appears to be way too much.

When it is finished, Poundbury should house some 6,000 people. Already folk are living there and some businesses look to be running successfully. Though, I fear many may struggle, unless tourists make a habit of visiting. A complete new section of town is about to be started for the Grey Pound folk, the retirees: but the entire town looks to me as if it is more likely to attract that sort of buyer, as they seem to be the ones who might have the money needed to live there.

What is frightening is the amount of financing that must be going into all of this. But more frightening, if you are the owner/investor, is that there are massive numbers of buildings, everywhere--houses, shops, etc. simply standing empty. So, much has yet to happen to see this as Prince Charles visualises it.

Poundbury, itself, reminds me a little of Port Sunlight, tho' Port Sunlight has more of a village feel to it: and is more charming with its whimsical architecture, big sky breathing space, grassy front gardens, and village green feel. Also, the nobleman who built that village had a view that the inhabitants would benefit from culture: so he built the village around a cultural centre: his collection of art being the draw card and the focus. Now, I did see a Gallery at Poundbury, and investigated, but it turned out to be a shabby chic gift shop, not Prince Charles's personal art collection gathered in one place for the benefit of a few. At the moment, the cultural centre appears to be Waitrose, as it has the biggest open space in front of it for parking. The good thing about this, though is that parking lines aren't marked so you can't be booked for obstructing other villagers, and Waitrose, like other businesses in the enclave, is not allowed to display eyesore signage all over its premises promoting itself.

So, lots of positives. Which is just as well as Prince Charles, now blooded from the Poundbury development, has his finger in the pie mix of umpteen other developments, and not just in the the UK. He, along with a consortium, is setting up a 5,000 home enclave in Nottingham. He also has 10 acres in Newquay in the Duchy of Cornwall where 170 homes are being built--which will no doubt add even more diners to the deck of Jamie Oliver's Fifteen restaurant that overlooks the surfing beach there. He has an old oil refinery site near Swansea, where he is to build on 1400 acres; and an old mining site in Ayrshire in Scotland with plans for developing over 69 acres. Not to mention a 50 block space in Port au Prince that he is helping re-develop after it was flattened by an earthquake, along with a completely new eco town in Calcutta.

Some years recently he has built more homes than some of the major project builders in the country. When you have this sort of money it really must feel a little like having your own Monopoly Board, in truth. Every so often you get to pick up a tiny lego model of a house, or a hotel, or a utility company and say to your team of players gathered around the table: Let's put this one in Park Lane. This store should sit well along Bond street. These cables could go under the streets of Mayfair.

Prince Charles, the developer appears to be a very busy man very likely having a whole load of fun. If he doesn't stop to think too long and too hard about the blank and empty spaces across his entire property board.